(no subject)

[camwyn]

So, fun fact, New England Coffee Company ships to home addresses and will either fine grind, coarse grind, or leave your coffee beans whole. Not sure how much the minimum order is, but if you're looking to buy coffee and you've run out and you don't mind your order coming via the Postal Service from Malden, you're good. I like these guys, and not just because I won $100 from them three years ago. It's decent coffee without being too fancy or overly expensive.

Also, Dick's Sporting Goods offers both delivery and contactless pickup- buy your thing online and say which store you're picking up from and they'll put it on the curb in front of the store when you get there, then back away so neither you nor they come into contact with other humans. I suppose this works better for orders like weight training benches or boxed sports equipment than sports bras.

To my sadness FreshDirect doesn't serve the Boston area. Mercato does, for small grocer purchases (by which I mean buying from small grocers or farmers' markets, not that you're being forced into making only small purchases). Peapod does, if you're okay with buying from Stop and Shop. I believe Instacart does, but I've had a ridiculous amount of trouble trying to get my ancient Instacart password reset and can't vouch for who and what they actually serve.

Best Buy sent me an email yesterday saying they're doing the curbside contactless thing for items you're capable of taking home in a car and offering free doorstep delivery for things too big to drive home. Unfortunately this does mean that if you buy a fridge from them you're going to have to take the fridge upstairs yourself. Worth noting, Best Buy also says this:

"Speaking of our employees, everyone working right now is doing so on a voluntary basis, and all hourly employees who volunteer are receiving a temporary pay increase. Additionally, anyone feeling sick is told to stay home, and they will be paid for that time. Finally, anyone exposed to a confirmed case of COVID-19 is also told to stay home, with pay, and we are paying employees who may need to stay home to care for their children."

Which is kind of reassuring, really, given how some retail chains can be.

Comments

[chanter1944]

How are New England Coffee Company as far as fair trade supply chain practices go, do you know? Asking for my sister as well as myself.

[camwyn]

Umph. Unfortunately they're not a heavily fair trade certified company; they offer a handful of fair trade coffee varieties, all of which appear to be out of stock and only sold in gift sets anyway. For Massachusetts-roasted fair trade and organically sensitive coffee I'd suggest Equal Exchange, which I will never be able to think of as anything other than Elric Brothers Coffee, which is based in Watertown and which covers a number of causes as well; however, you have to buy six bags at a time there, as far as I can tell. They offer you ground, or whole bean.

Jim's Organic Coffee is entirely shade grown and organic, and they have a number of varieties specifically marked with the fair trade logo; the others are beans bought at fair trade prices or higher. Jim's is a B Corporation like King Arthur Flour or Ben and Jerry's. You can get those one bag at a time, ground one of four ways or in whole bean. They're based in Wareham, Mass.

Both Equal Exchange and Jim's sell in ten or twelve ounce bags. Vermont Coffee Company makes pretty good coffee roasted with electricity generated by biogas from local dairy farms. Their bags are a pound of beans each. As of 2017 all the beans they were buying were certified organic and fair trade, although I don't know if they still buy only certified or not, as I can't find the emblem or a reference in the current FAQ. Definitely organic certified. They only offer whole bean, though. If you buy from them on a regular basis, keep the bags, they let you trade in the bag labels or the logos from the bag for various kinds of company merch.

[chanter1944]

Ooh, cheers for the info! <3 I already know of Equal Exchange, and am a fan. I seriously need to do some online sniffing around, here.

[camwyn]

Equal Exchange used to have a cafe down by North Station. I was only there once or twice, it's not a part of town I go to much except for specific appointments that don't generally leave me with much time to get coffee and pastries. The local supermarkets carry their bagged coffee, though, so I've been able to get that in the past. I come back to their stuff every so often, but there's a lot of local small companies that I've been trying to try. A habit that's currently on hold, since I can't really walk up to a supermarket shelf and go 'hmmmmmmm' right now, but still.

[camwyn]

Almost forgot. If you want really high-end special-occasion you-are-getting-this-as-a-gift-because-it-is-awesome-and-specialized fair trade direct sourced coffee, there's George Howell. I've bought both their brewed stuff and their ground stuff. It's expensive, but they're the only ones I've encountered so far where the label talks about this or that subtlety of taste and I've actually been able to perceive what they're talking about. They're based in Acton, Mass. Their light and medium roasts are really really good. I can't vouch for their dark roasts, I haven't tried those.